I’ve always considered myself fairly open minded about technology. I certainly don’t swear allegiance to any particular company or system. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s good I’ll use it. I say this because I wanted to write about my thoughts concerning apple’s latest Phone the IPhone 3gs.

Let me start by saying that yes I do come from a windows background. And yes, I am not totally familiar with everything apple. I did however spend time before I left reading the manual and getting to understand terminology. I also feel that when it comes to new products, I am very quick to pick up concepts. So.. let me begin.

Apple has several stations setup where you can try new technology. The IPhone of course being at a table. I was impressed with the phone’s design. It’s long, skinny, and shiny. I tend to notice that most everything apple makes has a shine to it. Of course, I’m not going to purchase based on a device’s polished exterior. So, how did I like the phone. That’s the important part.

Honestly. I didn’t. The concept to me was very interesting, and I loved the fact, that I could pick up the phone, and navigate the menus with little to no sighted assistance. Though the sales rep that was sitting with me noticed I was floundering a small bit. One of the things to remember about a phone with a touch screen is that it is going to require a certain amount of spatial awareness. After being told that there was four rows of icons, I started to get the hang of navigating. I did have the commands memorized, but it might of been advantageous for me to bring a cheat sheet with me. I may remember that for next time, as I refuse to write off a phone on one visit. My other issue is that it didn’t seem very responsive. I would touch something onscreen, and then have to wait to hear what it was I actually touched. I tend to wonder if I was pressing too hard, or was touching blank space. The pair of ear buds I had brought from home didn’t do me any favors either.

It’s not all gloom and doom though, as there were things I liked. Web browsing was fun. IN fact, in the five minutes I was using Safari I was able to find a youtube video all about kites. And that’s another thing. to find said video, I had to actually use the keyboard. This was something I enjoyed. I could of done myself a favor by swapping to landscape mode. but either way, I did pretty good at typing. I really liked the concept of split double tapping. put your finger on something, then tap with your other hand, or with another finger. I didn’t get the motions down right so I sort of looked funny.

So where do I go from here? I want to take another trip back to the store and spend more time with it now that I’m more familiar with how it works. I still haven’t been able to embrace the phone, but I wonder if a bit of time with it will change my attitude. I’m interested in what people have to say. Maybe more experienced users will be able to make suggestions that may be helpful. My ears are always open.

I’ve been dealing with computer periferals and electronics for awhile now. I Certainly am not at the level of expertese where I can assemble and disassemble electronic equipment at will. However, today was a great example of someone who isn’t exactly an expert knowing somethingwas very wrong.

I had recorded a podcast using my olympuss ds20 this morning. It was in regards to the best way to organize one’s collection of video games. I thought it would be something interesting, and different. Recording was the easy part. When it came time to transfer the audio from my olympuss to my pc, I plugged in the olympus, and plugged in the usb cable like normal. However, there was no cheerful duh ding from my pc. Instead, Ther ewas only depressing silence. So I figgured I’d check my computer to see if maybe the device had shown up, and I had missed it. Well. NO device. It was certainly a curious concept. NO Device? Well, maybe the USB port on the front of this machine is weird. I should try the back ports. That’s when I smelled something like burning rubber. Burning rubber I thought? That’s kind of odd. Wait a second! The USB cable!
I yanked out the usb cable from the pc only to be met witha burning hot cable. Looking at it, it looks like the covering on the wire had started to warp which I’m assuming meant it was melting.

Good thing I didn’t go off to do something else. I might of had a mess to deal with, and possibly no room or house. Plus, I’d have a less than pleased family.
So my question is. What the hell happened? I have never seen anything like that happen before in my life. Anyone got any ideas?

ok. first off. I am not questioning whether or not I should visit the bathroom. That is not what this post is about.
I am pondering aquiring nintendo’s latest console. Yes. I refuse to use it’s name in this post as I think it’s one giant eufamism.
I mean. come on. It is the only console I know where people give you dirty looks when you talk about it. For instance. I can say with no problem my sister has a gameboy. There is nothing wrong it all when saying that she let me play her game boy ds. However, people will either glare at you or think you’re from tenessee when you emfatically state that you’re sister let you play with her wii.

Ok. That out of the way. Should I buy this thing? I borrowed one briefly, and yes it was my sister’s. I was more than displeased with the concept of having to point at menus. this wouldn’t bother me so much if there was an alternate way of getting around. My problem is. There are a ton of games on the virtual console I want to play. Of course, I can’t independently buy anything off the virtual console, so what’s the point. Nintendo, can you please just go back to having everything use controllers and get rid of the wii mote. blind people hate it.

I’m really curious who read these things. Seriously. I am. I mean I don’t sit up all night wondering who checks my journal. Tonight I’m sitting up all night slowly melting due to the weather outside. There is just this thing about the weather I can’t understand.

Last winter was one of the worst winters I’ve ever seen in Chicago. It lasted from about mid november, to just about 2 weeks ago. What really got me is how cold my roomg ot. I mean. It seriously was freezing. But now.. Now it’s 70 degrees outside, and for what ever reason it feels like an oven in here. I wish my room could stay in some sort of comfy temperature. I can’t sleep like this, and work comes early. And I’d like to be at some sort of level of awakeness when I have to stumble in to the office rubbing the sleep from my eyes later this morning. It’ll be another day of fighting with microsoft word, and silently cursing my work pc.

so. Anyways. Who looks at this thing anyways? And why is it that we blog in the first place? It could just be my general apathy towards the universe, but reading about what someone ate for lunch and all that doesn’t interest me. Granted, writing about it doesn’t interest me either but I gotta kill time somehow.

A year ago, I bought a Motorola Q and was excited about the prospects of using it with Mobile speek. Up to this point, it’s worked flawlessly. However, with what ever they’ve done with the new version, they have utterly destroyed a lot of it’s useability.

Let’s start with message boxes. When any message box appears, Mobile speak feels like reading said contents at least three times. Let me say how annoying this gets. Older versions worked fine.

Then there is the general instability of windows mobile 5. There have been a vast number of times where the device hasn’t worked like it should thus requiring a restart. This drives me up the wall. I bought a phone so that I could use it, not so that I could keep soft resetting it every 20 minutes. Oh, and the 45 seconds I have to wait for the phone to boot is a little ridiculous too.

Finally, Text messaging. If you use mobile speak, you’ll know all too well what I’m talking about. Go ahead and write a text message. Most likely part way through, your mobile speak will stop responding, requiring a restart. So. Take the windows restarts and the mobile speak restarts, and you’ll see how frustrated I am.

At first, I thought the simple solution would be to buy a new phone. But it’s sad when a vast number of people who use the newer phones complain of the same issues I’m having. My solution? Go back to symbian.
Of course, this brings up the dilemma of which phone do I get. I was eyeing the n82 until I found out it doesn’t support 3g. I use 3g a lot especially connecting my laptop to my phone for use as a dial up modem. I tend to wonder how big of an issue this would turn out to be. I do want data use though. Which is why I ask. any suggestions. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I should look in to?

I figured I would peak out of my shell to write a bit. I have had this journal for I would say almost 8 years. I think it’s time I write things of some use besides complaining about my love life, or that I’m hungry, or that there’s nothing on TV.

I often wonder why it is I put myself through the daily hell that is known as a job. I noticed when I started I was very excited, but that excitement has manifested itself into somewhat of an apathetic feeling. Is it the daily commute both ways on the metra train? Is it having to sit at a desk all day programming, which is not what I wanted to do as a career? Is it that I constantly feel tired, and drained? I’m not really sure at this point. But all I know is, something needs to change. I’ve been taking vitamins, sleeping early, and trying to eat better. None of that seems to work.
My day looks somewhat like this. I wake up at 5:00. I watch the news to see who is stabbing, maiming, or killing who, and who won in our various sports. Oh, and especially now I want to see how freaking cold it’ll be. I then eat my breakfast which usually consists of something you’d eat for dinner. Friday morning it was chicken strips. Then I hop in the shower and all that hygienic stuff. I want to look pirty for the job. I then decide to kill sometime with either music, or a video game. In the case of rock band, it’s both at once. Several strained vocal chords later, it’s time to hop in the car and head off to the train station to catch my train. Oh boy!!! Then it’s standing at the platform, waiting for the train, and lately getting blasted in the face by snow that puffs out of the trains whistle. I climb on board, and thus begins the journey to work. It takes about 45 minutes or so. I try and listen to music, or take a cat nap. But it’s hard to do that with stops being announced every five minutes.
I get to work, and the day is some what of a blur. I work, I eat lunch, and work some more. It’s sad when writing about the preparation of work takes more time than work itself. I don’t want to really get in to what I do, as I don’t want to disclose any work related info. Yall know how it is.
Then it’s home again home again. I walk from work to the train, hop on, and head home. You’d think that I’d be all excited to get home, and that I’d have tons of awesome things to do. Those awesome things can be summed up like this. Walk in the door, read email, go to bed. Yes. Those wild nights of staying up and partying are gone. By the end of the day, I just have enough energy to flop down and sleep. then the cycle repeats over and over and over again.
After a few weeks of this, I really don’t want to do it. I miss staying home and starting the day when I want it to start it. I actually really miss LWorks. I miss writing games, but the hard fact is that it doesn’t make money. So, I work. And truth be told, it’s not as bad as it could be. I’ve met friends at work, I’m a social butterfly at lunch, and I get along well with everyone. Hey.. Maybe they could get me to write games instead? Get the best of both worlds?

But not everything is doom and gloom. For Christmas I received a Xbox 360. I must say I have been loving it. As I mentioned earlier, I usually spend the mornings playing. One of the things I enjoy about the console is how it is integrated with windows messenger. It uses your windows live ID, and you can do most everything from the web which includes downloading games, videos, and demos. I’ve brought back the podcast, so check that out when you have a chance.

I don’t know what more to say. I have nothing of value to post about. So.. who can say really. I’ll try and post when the mood strikes, for all 0 people who read this.